Category: Art and Craft

In olden days Festival means songs by Haridasu, Rangolis in front of the house and placed Gobbemmalu on the top of Rangoli, dances of the buffaloes with the blessing songs sung by the two persons which is called as Gangiredhula Melam and so on. Which creates an attractive to the festival which are celebrated in the villages. In order to watch those kinds of arrangements for the Sankranthi festival one has to say hello to the villages. Now, for the people who are busy in their mechanical life and don’t have time to go to the villages to enjoy such a real beauty of the festivals then one can celebrate in the living city itself by just visiting a place called Shilparamam. The journey itself seems to be like a festival. The experience which we get from the journey to Shilparamam which resembles the village atmosphere is really a wonder and unforgettable one.

Platform for the Arts and Handmade works…

The journey to Shilparamam will be in such a way that almost all these discussed issues are been covered in this trip. One can rewind the forgotten customs and traditions in this busy life in the journey to Shilparamam and can explain it to their children’s who don’t the real festival atmosphere, customs and traditions. The Shilparamam which is there in the area of around 65 acres is specially designed as an Arts and Crafts village. One can get real feel that all the items which are placed in the Shilparamam are a human beings like them. The exhibitions which are of the handloom products goes on for the whole year in this place. The people from various places used to come here and exhibit their talent to the people which is a wonder and beautiful. The exhibition contains the items like clothes, paintings, toys and decorative articles and so on which are made by the people from village background are exhibited in the exhibition. In this way daily 100 stalls are arranged for the exhibition. One of the specialty of these hand crafts exhibition is almost all the items are been prepared in the Shilparamam only. There are training classes for the people who are interested in the hand crafts and traditional dances and so on.

Stage of Traditional Enjoyment

The Gotipuva is one of the famous dance which is done just with the simple moments of the eyes and body and it is the origin of Orissa which is a traditional one. The Yakshaganam which is in the form of dance and songs which contains the subject of the Maha Bharatam is not seen anywhere. In this way there are many in the list which are to be seen. One has to visit the Shilparamam to have a look at the traditional dances and occasions just by giving a break for the modern disco and pub programs and make the mind feel fresh and pleasant. One can view the traditional dances and attractive cultural programmes in the Amphi Theater for free of cost. All these are there every day on the eve of Sankranthi. One can enjoy the traditional ride by paying Rs.5 and can ride on the buffaloes for a few minutes which is very different and the habit of the village people. The boating in Shilparamam is another kind of interesting program for the tourists. There are some of the special games which are played in our childhood like Vamana Gunalu and so on is made to play by both the children and parents. The puppet show is another famous interesting show in Shilparamam.

Mud…Museum…

The value of the mud is not known to any other people on this earth as known for the Indians because agriculture and cultivation id the main means of living in our country. The rural museum which is there in the Shilparamam is very beautiful and very attractive where all the images are made of mud and they appear as if they are the real human beings with life in them. All these statues resemble the life in the village and rural areas. It is one of the art gallery that is to be visited by the people in the Shilparamam.

The Feast

The people who visit Shilparamam can taste various foods which are very tasty. The traditional items like Sunni Vundalu, Pulihora, Boorelu, Bobbatlu, and Putarekulu and so on are been prepared and are kept for the sale. Besides there are the Rural Food Courts that are arranged in the Shilparamam where delicious food is been available. The rock museum which is arranged under the name of Nature Raaga and there are health centers for the people who wish to cure the diseases through nature medicines. The rock heights and the shilpa kala Vedika are the functions which are convenient for the functions. Most of the functions of the great personalities are been conducted here and by this the greatness of the place and its beauty is well known to everyone.

The Bhudan Pochampalli Handlooms became very popular in the world. In the field of Handlooms the clothes waived in Pochampally has a special style of weaving. One can easily understand the greatness of Pochampally style of weaving by came to know the issue that are exported to America for the decoration of White house which is the Presidents house in United States of America.

The clothes and Hankies used as a Turbon which are weaved by Pochampally waivers are exported to the Arab countries even during the period of Nizam rule. They started waiving clothes in the Chitiki design at Pochampally from the year 1910. The handlooms waived by Pochampally people are so popular on the names of Ikat, Tie and Die. In the year 1956 the chairman of All India Handloom Board Kamalabai Chatopadhaya visited this place and suggested that instead of weaving saris in Chitiki design using wool, it is better to weave the saris using the silk thread so that the demand on Pochampally saris will be more like that of Banaras saris. When the Chatopadyaya promised that proper training will be given on weaving Banaras saris for the handloom workers then Karnati Anantha Ramulu and Manikyam Brothers came forward to take the training from Banaras. They went to Banaras and learned the procedure of weaving Banaras silk saris for a period of One year and also learned the printing using various colors in Tanjore. After they trained properly on both weaving and printing they designed Three Silk saris using 10 pounds of silk thread which is donated by some great person with the help of Pochampally Handloom Welfare Society on weaving machine. They are called as Pochampally Silk Sarees and they costs Rs. 70/- in those days. Based on this experience the Karnati Anantha Ramulu started training some of the local handloom weavers in the making of the silk saris. In this way, the Pochampally silk saris became famous and the art of weaving expanded to the other surrounding places around Pochampally. The people in Mumbai especially the Guajarati’s love this saris in such a way that no marriage took place without Pochampally silk saris.

World Famous Pochampally Sarees

They weaved the saris in such a way that the total saris can be packed in a match box and the National leaders photos printed on the silk saris which are become famous and shows the greatness of the Pochampally weavers. Another specialty is that the Late Prime minister of India Smt. Indira Gandhi wears only Pochampally saris. By identifying the importance of Pochampally Silk saris the government of India has given a patent rights to the beautiful Handloom saris. These excellent and attractive Pochampally weaved handlooms are exporting to different countries like America, Britain, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Belgium and so on.

The Dharmavaram Silk sarees had a history of around 100 years. The weavers used to weave the Silk sarees from the time of the British only. During that time the people used to grow the Mulberry trees in large numbers around the Bangalore areas. The weaving of the sarees is been started by their own during the time of the hereditary of Gaddam Yatirajulu, Pallem Venkatesulu since one century back only. In the beginning days the farmers used to grow the Silk insects and used to prepare the cocoons from them. The cocoons are been boiled in the hot water and the silk thread is been brought out and used to weave the sarees from that thread. Till 1980 the weavers used to weave one side and two side stitched sarees which are very famous in those days and later on they changed their style to one lakh of lights using the 120 jacards and big size Kalanjali border designs on the Silk sarees are been designed. As the time being later on the trend shifted to 240 jacards Kalanjali, Evening, Morning, Brocket, ootu and so on sarees are been designed and weaved by the weavers.

The silk thread is been prepared using the advanced machines and designed the sarees in various colors which are very attractive and for the production of the sarees, the weaving mills and factories are been started in these places. The Dharmavaram Silk sarees are branded for the quality and attraction. The weavers who work in the production of a saree are of different castes and so the creativity of all the people is put together and gave rise to the new sarees and designs. Besides this, even the popularity of the Dharmavaram sarees is been passed to all the places. Some of the famous weavers like Chippala Siddharamayya and Chinna Ramayyalu used to take the awards from the Governor also for their skill in the work.

Attractive Dharmavaram Silk Sarees Designs

The designs like peacock feathers on the Silk sarees, Bramhakamalam, the designs which are like the shine of the stars, perfume based sandal sarees, and the sarees which changes the colors because of the threads used in them are been designed by the weavers of these days which shows their skill and talent. Among 26 designs in the sarees, 11 are from the handloom and the remaining 15 are from the power looms. As there are around 240 jacards of Kalanjali, Evening, Morning, Brocket sarees there is a great demand for these sarees.

Employment with Dharmavaram Silk Sarees

There are around 50 thousand of handlooms around the areas of Dharmavaram and from these around 80 thousand of families are getting the livelihood. The annual turnover of these industries is around Rs.500 crores and especially the development is seen in the women based weaving industries where the turnover is more and are looking after their families with good income. There is a great demand for the Dharmavaram sarees for all the people especially for the political leaders and cine stars. The cost of the sarees which are weaved in Dharmavaram will be around Rs.1500 to Rs.25,000. in the same way the handmade sarees which are weaved using the silk thread will be around Rs.25,000 to one lakh. At present the Dharmavaram sarees are been imported to all the countries not only in the national level but also international level. That is the reason why special brand is been given to the Dharmavaram sarees by giving a special recognition. There is a great demand for the sarees which are having the Brand as Dharmavaram silk sarees. These sarees are been exported to the countries like America, Dubai, Malaysia, China and to many other places.